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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Fracking Fears (mini-explosions beneath our feet)

What the hell is fracking?

Wikipedia.org tells us the process of hydraulic FRACKINGis a technique used to release petroleum, natural gas (including shale gas, tight gas, and coal seam gas), or other substances for extraction. This type of fracturing creates fractures from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations.

Apparently this process has been used in harvesting gas and oil from over a million wells for the past 60 years. (The first use of hydraulic fracturing was in 1947) However, recent alarm has been focused on this industry for numerous reasons, but one in particular which grabbed our attention is, an alleged increase in earthquake activity.

Meanwhile, on a completely unrelated topic, we recently celebrated the detonation of the first atomic bomb, around 67 years ago. (July 16, 1945).

Okay--just so we have this straight in our own minds--those mini-explosions detonated over a mile underground in order to release wisps of energy producing products is of major concern to environmentalists and other fidgety organizations (Environmental Protection Agency apparently not included on this list), BUT--BUT, THIS ACTIVITY NEVER SENT UP EVEN A FEW RED FLAGS!